A. Field of Invention
This disclosure generally relates to devices such as bearings, and couplings, damping devices and related methods; and to methods and apparatuses related to compact non-contact mechanical bearings, couplings, and damping devices.
B. Description of the Related Art
Load bearing, damping and mechanical coupling devices are known in the art. For instance, some well known bearing types include radial bearings, thrust bearings, hydrodynamic bearings, hydrostatic bearings; and some well known types of mechanical coupling devices include clutches. Prior devices are limited in terms of the amount of load they are capable of bearing. In part, the limitation arises from limited load bearing surface area.
It is known to use two bearings in series to increase stiffness, for instance, in hydrodynamic bearings used in hard disk drives. According to some prior arrangements, a gap between two opposing hydrodynamic bearing surfaces is maintained when the bearing is not moving. More specifically, some prior arrangements use embedded magnets disposed in opposing hydrodynamic surfaces to maintain the gap. However, such arrangements have inherently low loading capacities due in part to the low magnetic field strength that is achievable with embedded magnets.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a compact device having high surface area and a large loading capacity.